“Do you want to know how I actually hurt my wrist? I was Hula Hooping. Kevin and I attend a class for fitness and for fun. I’ve mastered all the moves: the pizza toss, the tornado, the scorpion, the oopsie-doodle…” (more…)

The Office wasn’t really about selling paper, Parks and Rec is not really about working in the Parks Department (Although Leslie Knope might beg to differ) and Brooklyn Nine-Nine has proven that, like it’s Mike Schur predecessors, it is really a show about relationships. (more…)

Linda Cardellini is a great actress and I would love to see more of her on TV (or anywhere.) That being said I think it was strange arc for her to be the main character on a show known for the strength of it’s main characters, and I was very much looking forward to a return to normalcy tonight. (more…)

Fox’s Tuesday Night comedy block is 75% awesome. We will rank each show accordingly week by week.

3. Brooklyn Nine-Nine – The Bet

The opening scene for Brooklyn Nine-Nine was perhaps the best part of this episode. I love the idea of a horse named Sergeant Peanut Butter outshining (and outranking!) Boyle. The later references made me chuckle, and I’m hoping like Lil’ Sebastian before him, Sgt. Peanut Butter can become a recurring in-joke/ reference on the show.

Unfortunately, the rest of the show was not clicking tonight, which is a shame considering it just WON TWO GOLDEN GLOBES (What?) The bet that was set up in the Series Premiere comes to an end, and Jake wins with a last minute prostitution sting bust. If he lost, he would need to give Detective Santiago his car, but since he won, he gets to spend $1400 on taking her on an embarrassing date? Although he has just won possibly the most uneven bet in the world, he can’t help but celebrate.

It was a shame that the episode pairing Jake and Santiago was right on the heels of a great episode featuring him and Rosa working together. The chemistry between Jake and Rosa was so much stronger. I don’t think I can get behind this new ship.

The rest of the episode was full of comedy cliches, whether it was Captain Holt making things worse for Sgt. Terry while trying to make things better, or the plot device of a character who for some reason can only tell the truth (Boyle.) I know plenty of people who have taken pain meds, and this is NOT a side effect.

C’mon Golden Globe winner Brooklyn Nine-Nine. You can do better.

2. New Girl – Basketball

Another week, another perfectly good but unexceptional episode of New Girl. Jess really wants to be friends with Coach, and all he wants to do is watch Detroit Pistons games. So she decides she will pretend to be a Pistons fan and bond with him through sports.

Butt Bump!

In reality Coach would have realized Jess knows nothing about basketball within the first 30 minutes of watching a game with her, but comedies don’t need to be realistic, and I liked the further development of their relationship. There were some genuinely funny moments between Nick and Jess when they were withholding sex from each other as well. Nick’s seduction techniques were on point, and I love how weird these two can be together.

The storyline revolving around Schmidt and Winston had some good comedy as well. I’m not really buying CeCe suddenly just being the bartender, and is Winston really going to just up and become a cop? Or is the joke going to be that he will have a different job every week? C’mon New Girl writers, Winston deserves better. The rivalry between Schmidt and Ed worked well, and I wouldn’t mind seeing Ed come back as a nemesis for Schmidt in later episodes.

Solid work New Girl.

1. The Mindy Project – L.A

It’s always funny when a show that is filmed in Los Angeles but set elsewhere (usually New York) has their characters go to L.A. for some reason. It’s like for the first time the director can shoot outdoor scenes and you just know they will try to take full advantage of it.

So the team will travel to LA for the Southland Injectable Conference. I’m not sure what OBGYN’s are doing injecting Botox into women (vaginal facelifts perhaps?) or why anybody from Mindy needs to get certified. Are gynecologists doing plastic surgery on the side now? I honestly don’t know. Seriously, somebody tell me. As someone who watched all eight seasons of Entourage with growing frustration, I did appreciate the references throughout. Although it is a shame there was no cameo from Jerry Ferrara. Instead, we got Kevin Smith, playing a bitter fat-shaming version of himself. Oh well.

The return of Anders Holm’s Casey to the show may be the real reason why Mindy won the week. His character always made me laugh, and I love his transformation from Pastor to a much more recognizable Ders from Workaholics. I respect that while this show is functioning as a comedy, it also has a forward moving plot. Whereas New Girl and Brooklyn Nine-Nine seemed to tread water this week, on The Mindy Project we saw Mindy and Cliff break up, and Danny reach out to his father. The jokes are often hit or miss, but this week there was more hit than miss and the emotions felt earned. Way to go Mindy, keep up the good work.

The 2nd season of The Mindy Project has been, much like the first season, wildly inconsistent. Even with these rockier episodes, there are some funny moments. Regrettably, the show opens with a joke thats seems a little insensitive towards mental health issues. Mindy mistakenly thinks Cliff’s Prilosec is Prozac and screams at him, “I knew you were crazy!” You would think that a doctor would not have this response to medication needed for a legitimate health problem, and this joke seems especially out of taste with all the recent attention paid to mental health disorders.

Danny suggests that Mindy could just wear a skirt over her bikini, “like the moms do” leading to this:

The rest of the episode is a little ridiculous, with Danny becoming Mindy’s trainer. I was surprised to learn that Mindy Lahiri is a Republican -“Chis Christie, our next President”

There is an ok training montage, two ridiculous scenes with a naked Mindy, once in a steam room, and even more ridiculously, once in her office? Danny think Mindy looks good, but should grow out her bush. Weird.

2. New Girl – Clavado En Un Bar

The pre-credits scene teaches us that Jess has a full-time job opportunity at a Children’s Museum and she has 21 minutes to make the decision. Interesting because typical running time for a half hour show (minus commercials) is 22 minutes. REAL TIME EPISODE ALERT. The episode sets up as flashbacks conveying how all of the main characters made major life changing decisions in their past.

The perpetually uninteresting Winston kicks it off by explaining how he was the 9th guy off the bench for the 8th best basketball team in Latvia. Hr was told he would never play again, and realizes he may have never made a decision in his life. Poor Winston, his character seems even more unnecessary now that Damon Wayans Jr. is back.

Fat Schmidt used to be altruistic, and even volunteered at a hospital where he had a crush on a nurse. He realizes he needs a real job, so he sells christmas trees where he realizes one fundamental truth.

The other fundamental truth he comes to realize is that life is all about making money, thus giving us the Schmidt we know and love today.

Coach is the only one NAMED after his career. and that’s all we need to know about him. Nick, studied during his third year of law school in the very bar he works in today.

After the disheartening news that Jess’s first student is now wanted by the FBI, Cece informs Jess that she was in fact her first student – Cue a flashback to young Cece and Jess who is ginger for some reason and looks nothing like Zooey Deschanel?

I grow up to be you?! Hell yes.

The end is weird and has a lot of major plot points thrown in in the last minute or so. Jess turns down the job, and decides she wants to become a principal. Nick actually did pass the Bar Exam. Winston quits his job and still can’t make decisions. Cece becomes a bartender, and Schmidt may go back to selling Christmas Trees? It was a lot of crazy things to throw in to what seemed to be a bottle episode but hey, let’s roll with it.

1. Brooklyn Nine-Nine – Pontiac Bandit

Although the first few episodes of Brooklyn Nine-Nine were pretty shaky, it is quickly becoming my favorite new show from the fall season.

The show sets up the B-story in the pre-credits scene: Boyle is returning from being shot in the butt, and is clearly not ready to be out and about. Everyone feels bad for him, so they oblige his request for Sudanese food (The hoof is the best part!) as well as put up with his general fumbling. In the end, he gets puppies. Yay!

Craig Robinson is introduced as Doug Judy, a conman who Rosa has been chasing for a month and finally caught up with. He is lustily singing through the glass to her, and is set up early on for a great guest appearance.

Judy has information on the Pontiac Bandit, someone Peralta has been chasing for years, so they make a deal with him (which Rosa is hesitant about) to find Bill, the suspect. They go by Judy’s house, meet his mom, and have a grand time quoting from one of the greatest films of all time. Next they set up a meeting with Bill, but Judy decides that Peralta looks too much like a cop. So he wears this, much less suspicious outfit to the meet-up.

In the end, Doug Judy turns out to be the real Pontiac Bandit. He gets away, and Peralta vows that he will catch him. Hopefully for us, this means Craig Robinson will return in a future episode, as he was hilarious in this role. The episode also featured some touching moments between Rosa and Peralta, along with the back story that they were in the Academy together. Brooklyn Nine-Nine looks to be on the same path as another Mike Schur creation: Starting out a little shaky, then becoming roaringly funny, and ultimately sneaking little bits of warmth into our cold hearts. Brooklyn Nine-Nine definitely won this Tuesday night.